


The Ghost Who Said "Hello" to the Moon

by Lavanya_Six



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Female Characters, Friendship, Gen, Mythical Beings & Creatures, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-04
Updated: 2011-01-04
Packaged: 2017-10-14 09:57:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/148039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lavanya_Six/pseuds/Lavanya_Six
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"You seem much nicer than the old Moon Spirit. She never talked with anyone but her husband."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	The Ghost Who Said "Hello" to the Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Malu was a character created for the show's Trading Card Game (TCG).

**The Ghost Who Said "Hello" to the Moon**

 

It was an infected broken leg that felled Malu, the last surviving airbender of the Eastern Air Temple, but the Ghost of Witch Mountain carried on regardless.

She lived on in the minds of the Earth Kingdom villagers who dwelt in Witch Mountain's shadow. Their children and grandchildren would continue the tradition of leaving alms on their window sills for the shadowy figure that rescued people lost in the woods. Firebenders regaled bar halls with stories of their encounters with the otherworldly specter who raided convoys for food and medicine.

The Ghost of Witch Mountain, they said, was a young girl with wild, shaggy brown hair. She was a wolfing, half-mad but _free_ ; a small child who miraculously survived Sozin's Purge only to be raised by the spirits of dead airbending nuns. Gentle to those without malice, firm but playful with her enemies, she was a symbol of innocent resistance to the war, the last echo of a bygone time of peace. And in the retelling of her story in all its variations, mass belief gave birth to a nascent spirit.

While Malu's bones bleached under the sun, her spirit lived on in the Ghost. There would be no broken legs stopping her now. She would walk the trails of Witch Mountain for as long as her story was told and people believed.

Decades later, when a new Moon shone down on Witch Mountain, the Ghost looked up at the starry sky in wonder. Unlike the villagers at the foot of her mountain, the spirit-girl knew that the moonlight was... different. Curious, the Ghost climbed to the summit of Witch Mountain and called out from its highest peak, "Hello, Moon! How are you doing tonight?"

Here the Moon Spirit paused in her journey across the sky, because this was the first time anyone had asked her such a question. In her first life, Yue had rarely been asked about her feelings, and those who once knew her from then now thought her dead. This second life was a terrifying thing, for the Ocean Spirit still mourned his lost love and would only dance with her in silence. The Moon Spirit was glad to have anyone speak to her, so she went down to Witch Mountain to answer the spirit-girl who'd spoken to her.

"H-hello," said the Moon Spirit. "I'm... I'm fine, thank you." She wasn't sure how spirits were supposed to behave, but her father had always told her that a princess was to be composed at all times to set an example. You never knew who was watching.

"You seem worried. Are you okay?"

"I'm new at this," the Moon Spirit admitted.

The Ghost understood. "You get used to it, being alive but not."

"Y-you do?"

She nodded. "You seem much nicer than the old Moon Spirit. She never talked with anyone but her husband." The Ghost of Witch Mountain smiled. "Would you like to be friends?"

The white-haired Moon Spirit nodded, grateful not to be alone in such a strange world. "I'm Yue. Or I was, before."

This the spirit-girl understood too. "I'm the Ghost of Witch Mountain, but my friends call me Malu." And with that, the once-human airbender extended an open hand. The Moon Spirit, floating over the summit of the mountain, leaned down and took up the offering.

From then on, when the villagers living around the mountain looked up, everyone agreed that the Moon seemed to shine more brilliantly upon Witch Mountain than anywhere else on all the Earth.


End file.
